Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-06-18

she had to conceal them. She lived in con-
slant terror lest he should be among the
killed However nothing happened to him,
and things went on as usual till the 18th of
February, on which day an attack was made
ona place called the Red House Kraal, which
was occupied by Beers, near spot known as
the Six Mile Spruit.
The force. which was a mixed one, left
Pretoria before daybreak, and John went
with it. He was rather surprised when, on
going to the cart i'll which jess slept, to get
some little thing before saddling up, to find
her sitting on the box in the night dews with a
cup of coffee she had prepared for him in her
hand.
"What do you mean by this Jess'n he asked,
sharply Il will not have you getting up in
the middle of the night to make coffee for
me-
Il have not got up," she answered, quietly;
II have not been to bed"
sThat makes matters worse,n he said; but
nevertheless he drank the coffee, and was glad
to get it, while she sat on the box and watched
him.
PUT on your shawl and get something over
your head, he said, 1.-The dew will soak you
through. Look, your hair is all wet.
Presently she spoke. Il wish you would do
something for me, john" for she called him
John now "Will you promised"
allow like woman" he said, ito ask one
to promise a thing without saying what it Is "
al want you to promise for Bessie's sake"
she said
"Well, what is it, Jessm
"Not to go on this sortie You know you
can easily get out of it if you like"
He laughed. you little silly; why not!"
"Oh, don't know Don't laugh at me, be-
cause am nervous. / am afraid that-that
something might happen to YOU"
swell" he remarked, consolingly, "every
bullet has its billet, and if it does don't see
that it can be helped"
think of Bessie, she said again.
"Look here, Jess he answered, testify,
what is the good of trying to take the heart
out of fellow like this If | am going TO be
shot l can't help it, and l am not going to
show the white feather, even for BesSie's
sake; SO there you are, and now l must be
off,
"You are quite right, John, she said, qui-
city; Il should not have liked to hear YOU
say anything different, but could not help
speaking Good by, John; God bless you!"
and she stretched down her hand, which he
took, and went
sUpon my word, she has given me quite a
turn" reflected John to himself as the troop
crept on through the white mists of dawn.
1T suppose that she thinks that | am going t.
be plugged. Perhaps I am wonder how
Bessie would take it. She would be awfully
cut up. but expect that she would get ovel
it pretty soon. Now l don't think that Jes;
would get over a thing of that sort in a hurry
That is just the difference between the two
the one is all flower and the other is all root
And then he fell to wondering how BESSIE
was and what she was doing, and if she missed
| him as much as be missed her, and so on, til
| his mind came back to jess, and he reflected
| what charming companion she was, ant
| how thoughtful and kind, and breathed {
secret hope that she would continue to live
with them after they were married. Some
| how they had got to those terms perfect,
| innocent in themselves, in which two peopl
| become absolutely necessary to each other
| daily life. Indeed. jess had got long wa,
| further than that, but of this he was of cours
| ignorant. He was still at the former stage
and was not himself aware how large a pro
| portion of his daily thoughts were occupied
by this dark eyed girl, or how completely he
| personality was overshadowing him He onl,
| knew that she had the knack of making hin
| feel thoroughly happy in her society. Whei
| he was talking to her, or even sitting silentl,
| by her, he became aware Of sensation o
restfulness and reliance that he had never be
| fore experienced in the society of a woman
| OF course this was to a large extent tn
natural homage of the weaker nature to tn
stronger, but it was also something more
was the shadow of that utter sympathy am
| perfect accord which is the sureSt sign of tn
| presence of the highest forms of affection
and when it accompanies the passion of mel
and women, as it sometimes, though rarely
does being more often found in its highes
| form in those relations from which the elemen
of sexuality is excluded, raises it almost abov
the level of the earth. For the love wher
| that sympathy exists, whether it is betwee
| mother and son, husband and wife or thos
who, while desiring it, have no hope of tina
relationship, is an undying love and will Ell
| dure till the night of Time has swallowed a
things.
Meanwhile as John reflected, the force t
which he was attached was moving into az
| ton, and he soon found it necessary to com
down to the unpleasantly practical details @
Boer warfare. More particularly did thi
come home to his mind when, shortly after
ward, the man next to him was shot dead
and a little later he himself was slightl
wounded by bullet which passed betwee
his saddle and his thigh Into the details G
| the fight that ensued it is not necessary t
enter here. They were, if anything NOR
discreditable than most of the episodes c
that unhappy war in which the holding {
Potchefstroom, Lydenburg, Rustenburg an
| Wakkerstroom are the only bright spot
Suffice it to say that they ended in somethin
very like an utter rout at tue hands of
much inferior force, and that, few houi
after he had started John found himself O
the return road to Pretoria, with severed
wounded man behind his saddle the ambl
lance being left in the hands of the Beers
who, as they went painfully along, mingle
curses of shame and fury with his owl
Meanwhile exaggerated accounts of what LA
happened had got into the town, and, anon
other things, it was said that Capt Nj
had been shot dead. One man who came i
stated that he saw him fall, and that he We
shot through the head. This Mrs Neyil
heard with her own ears, and. greatly shoeket
started to communicate the intelligence
Jess.
As soon as it was daylight jess had, as WI
customary with her, gone over to the lit
house which she and John occupied, "Tl
Palatial, as it was ironically called. and Sc
tied herself there for the day. First she TIRE
to work and could not. so she took boo
that she had brought with her and began {
read, but it was a failure also. Her ey'
would wander from the page, and her ca
kept straining to catch the distant boomir
of the big guns that came from time to tin
floating across the hills The fact of the ma
ter was that the poor girl was the victim of
presentiment that something was going
happen to John. Most people of imaginati'
mind have suffered from this kind of thing
one time or other in their lives, and ha'
lived to see the folly of it; and indeed, the
was more in the circumstances of the preset